In August, when Alexia took a cute snap of herself at a bar in Boston and posted it to Instagram, tagging the situation, she never expected to get a date with a handsome stranger.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur from Connecticut, who declined to offer her last name, was at a bachelorette party when she posted the selfie.
Later that night, a young real estate agent who had been taking a look at pictures from the bar stumbled across her image. He messaged her telling her she was beautiful and asking her out.
It was the primary time she’s been approached in such a way. She’d found dates on Hinge and Bumble for years, but had begun to tire of using such platforms.
“There’s numerous pressure on dating apps,” Alexia told The Post. “It’s just looks as if one other job — I’m just filling out applications for these people [and] having the identical conversations.”
She had a “great” first date with the Boston man, but things didn’t progress any further. Irrespective of. Prior to now few months, she’s been asked out by five men on Instagram, after they got here across her photos because she’d tagged bars and restaurants that interested them. Though she was caught off guard initially by this manner of meeting men, she’s come to see it as preferable to dating apps.
“You see that you could have similar interests and so they get to see your profile right off the bat. It’s not fake,” she said. “You will have your loved ones and friends on there and I just think it’s simpler.”
Young singles are tiring of traditional dating apps equivalent to Tinder, which saw downloads decrease by 5% in 2021, in keeping with the Financial Times. They’re searching for recent ways to seek out dates online, and Instagram, with its 1 billion lively users, is a straightforward, obvious alternative.
Victoria Alario, a 27-year-old from Hoboken, calls Instagram a “dating hack” and sees it as having each an old-fashioned and new-fangled appeal.
“It’s sort of like the web version of meeting someone at your favorite bar in a way because they’ve been tagged [there],” the content creator told The Post.
Last month, she posted a story on TikTok about Instagram dating that attracted almost 400,000 views. Her followers were quick to agree that the ‘gram is great for locating love.
“Instagram is the perfect dating app on the market. That’s for rattling sure,” said one commenter, while one other said they met their boyfriend this manner.
And the tactic isn’t nearly men approaching photogenic women.
Alario was recently taking a look at tagged photos of a restaurant she planned to go to, seeking out tasty photographs of food. Then, she saw a dish of a special sort that interested her: a cute guy who had tagged himself on the eatery. She liked his photo and shortly after received a follow request and a message from the person.
“It turned out we live [sort of] local to one another and got to chatting,” she said, adding that they exchanged numbers and are planning soon to fulfill up. “It was such a simple, easy conversation starter.”
Alario admitted that it does take some level of confidence to approach people in this way, but she said it’s also a guarantee of common interests — and you could have a readymade venue for a primary date.
“It sort of just removes the middleman and makes [online dating] a complete lot more easy,” Alario agrees. “We’re all actively on social media anyway so in case you use it then use it to your advantage.”
